The director of the Indy Public Safety Foundation said the organization was excited to partner with WISH Tree for a second year in a row.

Dane Nutty said the effort is vitally important to providing a positive impact on area families and first responders.

About half of the collection would be used during holiday events hosted by Indianapolis police and fire departments. The rest would stock police, fire and EMS vehicles for distribution at scenes of crisis.

“Being able to calm and diffuse that situation down allows first responders to actively engage and manage whatever incident they’re responding to,” Nutty said. “It also creates a long-lasting memory between that child and that police officer; that firefighter that these are folks that are here to help.”

Nutty had hopes going into Thursday that the campaign would surpass 2016’s collection of 5,000 toys.